At Cedars HOPE, we debuted our first Nutrition and Personal Wellness Course in Fort Wayne – a new version of which, with emphasis on hands-on cooking experience, begins next week. Cedars HOPE is also home to a Lifetime.Education full-service computer lab that residents use both during our Digital Skills Course taught each week and also to practice on their own time.

We’d like to give a Monday morning shout out to a volunteer of ours who recently completed a Financial Skills course at Hope House, Inc. and is currently still serving as an ESL tutor with another great partner of ours, Crime Victim Care of Allen County.

Thank you for all that you have done and still do, Erika!

Volunteers, like Erika, through Lifetime.Education, give just 1 hour of each week, but make a huge difference in the lives of others.

The Homeless Coalition is proud to be launching two new Digital Skills courses this month with partners here in Fort Wayne.

Janeann, who has been with the Homeless Coalition since February of last year, will be training members and staff of the Carriage House to prepare them for teaching Digital Skills to other members. In addition to serving the Homeless Coalition at such facilities as Hope House and Carriage House, Janeann is a professional trainer of digital technologies and operates her own company – KeyPoint Training, in addition to contracting for Microsoft.

Today, the Homeless Coalition has doubled the size of its computer lab at the Carriage House in preparation for what we are sure is going to be a very successful course!

Dave, a computer professional and teacher by trade, has been with the Homeless Coalition since April of last year. Dave has served at Wellspring Interfaith Social Services through the Homeless Coalition as well as helping out with our Community Flu Shot Clinics. Starting this month, Dave will be instructing residents of Hope House in Digital Skills.

Homeless Coalition of Fort Wayne is proud to present our end-of-year report we presented to our tutors, volunteers, and students who attended our end-of-year get together.

We’ve blessed with amazing volunteers from all walks of life and are so thankful for the opportunity to live, work, and serve a community as soulful and inclusive as Fort Wayne, Indiana. This city really is a special place.

The Fort Wayne Area Planning Council on Homelessness held a meeting today at Citizen’s Square in the Omni Room. Individuals from organizations throughout Fort Wayne serving individuals experiencing homelessness came together to be part of a dialogue on how we, as a city, can move forward. This particular FWAPCH meeting had record attendance – everyone from agency leaders, to city department heads, the Deputy Mayor, and even a representative from Senator Donnelly’s Office attended to listen, offer suggestions, and learn. In addition to record attendance, this FWAPCH meeting was also featured on wane.com and Channel 15. You can check out the video by clicking here, or look at the pictures by clicking the photograph below.

The Homeless Coalition of Fort Wayne, Inc. hosted community flu shot clinic at Hope House, Inc. a transitional facility for chemically dependent women. It was our 2nd annual flu shot clinic at Hope House and we had the pleasure of seeing some familiar faces as well as making new friends.

We’ve received the first part of a very generous donation from Parkview Health.

This generous donation from Parkview Health will help us towards our ambitious goal of equipping every partner site we tutor at with a full-service lab for classes and for the residents to use for everyday tasks as well.

The latest facility to receive a computer lab is Cedars Hope, a home for women living with serious mental illness – where instruction will begin the first week of September.

This month, the panel discussed the sobering topic of unemployment and substance abuse and what it means to have a quarter of our fellow citizens living below the poverty line.

Click the picture below to view the album on Flikr. In case you missed the episode on Access Fort Wayne channels 1 and 2, stay tuned to hcftw.org or our FaceBook page to catch the full episodes available on-line.